This blog will share elements of the stories of The Homeplace Saga included in this family saga series of novels and stories spanning the early 1800s to the present time. Somewhat like websites related to television shows and movies, elements of the stories and background materials will be included here that may not be explicitly included in the published works. Your participation through comments and questions will enhance the stories and your enjoyment of them.

Pages

Friday, October 4, 2013

The Founding of the Homeplace Summer 1843, Progress Report, Part 1 of 4

The Founding of the Homeplace

Summer 1843, Progress Report

Part 1 of 4

"The Founding of the Homeplace" saga will continue here on every other Friday during August and September. This is a serial presentation of the story, beginning in 1833, when four families decided to settle the land, the valley, that would become the setting of the first two books in the The Homeplace Series: "Back to the Homeplace" and "The Homeplace Revisited" and subsequent series stories, set in 1987 and 1996, to date. The underlying premise of this series is the desire of the family matriarch to retain the family farm in the southern Missouri Ozarks in whole and in the family.

Characters in this series become actively involved in the study of their family history and snippets of that research appear, from time to time through the series (one example). This serial presentation begins to share that ‘research’ in Story Form, and, some of the Stories represent 'writings of the family' that were ‘discovered’ in the process of that research. Each Story is an essay or report of the activities of the initial four families and their descendants that settled the Homeplace – the farm and the surrounding valley.

Summer 1843, Progress Report

In this episode, we share "Part 1 of 4"

In 1841, the Oak Creek valley had
become part of the newly formed Oak Creek Township of Shannon County, which was
split off from Ripley County.Jake
Patton had attended meetings for several months leading up to the official organization
as an informal representative of the residents of the valley.Whereas townships were normally set up
as six miles square, because of the topography of the area, Oak Creek Township
became six miles north and south but ten miles east to west, in the extreme
northwest corner of the new county. From the pool of the falls, the township
extended two miles north, mostly rugged forest. The eastern boundary of the
township was three miles to the east, generally following the top of ridge
dividing this valley from the Current River watershed to the east.

None
of the families that had settled further south along Oak Creek were included in
this township that ran four miles south from the pool; they were all in the
adjoining township to the south.In addition to the original five families (Baldridge, McDonald, Owen,
Patton and Truesdale) in the eastern valley, the five who had arrived by 1838
were now in the new township plus four additional families who had settled
since that time. The heads of
these households were: Jesse Bartlett, Victor Campbell, Oliver Dodson, Michael Duncan, Frances
Holt, George King, Jacob Pryor, Peter Simpson, and Eli Rhodes.

The organizing law
called for the election of three township trustees to be responsible for roads,
river crossings, cemeteries, and interacting with elected County officials on these
and other issues. When the elections were held, Robert Baldridge was elected
for the eastern valley, Jake Patton for the central, and Victor Campbell in the
west.

Victor Campbell,
along with his wife, Camilla, and their two teenage sons, Ralph and Delbert,
had settled on 160 acres along the Western Branch creek below the ridgeline in 1836.All three men were experienced with
working with mules in their agricultural pursuits. They brought a total of
seven mules with them along with a herd of six beef cattle.

Follow by Email

Search inside my books

Search This Blog

Join the Creative Process Here Now

About Me

Born in Coon Rapids, Iowa. William Leverne Smith was born and raised on a Midwestern farm. A passion for family history and genealogy studies provides background for his writing. He and his wife live in a cabin in the Missouri Ozarks.

Copyright Statement

You may NOT use the contents of this site for commercial purposes without explicit permission from the author and blog owner. Commercial purposes includes blogs with ads and income generating features, and/or blogs or sites using feed content as a replacement for original content. Full content usage is not permitted.